Seymour store to host songwriter prodigy's CD release party

Farmer's Feast supper slated Saturday
SEYMOUR - “Farmer Kim” Dulka, proprietor of the All-American Valley General Store and fourth generation grower at the town’s Red Clover Farms, will be having Sawyer Fredericks over for supper Saturday.

All-American Valley General Store

That's when the young singer-songwriter prodigy will host a release party for his first full-length CD, Out My Window, in concert with the evening’s “Farm to Table” 5-Course Farmer’s Feast.

The event is the store’s summer Saturdays fete to support local growers by gathering folks for a supper prepared from ingredients from area farms and dairies.

Sawyer Fredericks, a 14 year-old songwriter prodigy and country crooner, lives on Windrake Farm, his family’s farm south of Fultonville, NY. 

He learned to play guitar at 10, and began writing his own songs one year later. 

He recently recorded his first full-length CD, Out My Window, with the title song one of 15 original tracks featured on the release, recorded at Jeffrey Britton’s studio in Glen Falls, NY.  

Fredericks has promoted the debut recordings at Happy Jacks Café at the Mohawk Harvest Cooperative Market in Gloversville, N.Y. and at Goorin Bros., the hat shop where he bought his motif black bowler on Bleeker Street in Gotham’s West Village.

His Connecticut release party at the All American Valley General Store is simply “organic” as he is kindred with Dulka’s history and home on her family farm, as well as her own journey as a country musician.

Fredericks will perform at Saturday's 13 “Farm to Table” feast and autograph copies of his debut CD at the event. 

If you can’t make it to the General Store, CDs will soon be available for purchase via CDBaby.com and iTunes. 

Copies may be ordered from his family by sending $20 plus $3 shipping to Sawyer Fredericks, P.O. Box 98, Fultonville, N.Y. 12072.

An Evening with Sawyer / CD Release Party Menu:
1. Red Cabbage Slaw 2. Grilled Corn & Mango Salad 3. Buttermilk Herbed Chicken 4. Orzo with Roasted Summer Garden Vegetables  5. Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

The farmer’s feast supper seats from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Cost is $25 per person. 

The Red Clover Café menu of sandwiches, soups, salads and paninis is also available and patrons are also invited to enjoy the outdoor porch, patio and herb garden.

The store is open during the event, where diners can browse or buy produce, maple products, chocolates, organic soaps fresh spun alpaca yarn and more, all procured from local growers and artisans.

Reservations are strongly recommended; call 203-828-6442.

 

The information is this post is taken from a press release. 

Workshops to highlight composting, beekeeping

Events to be held in Ansonia, Woodbridge

ANSONIA - Spring is coming and the Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center and Massaro Farm in Woodbridge are getting ready to host workshops March 23 to educate the community about gardening and more.

Organic land care, planting an edible landscape, and nurturing our backyard pollinators will be topics of the day.

At noon March 23 the Massaro Farm will host a visit by the "Duck Truck" Composting Workshop at the nature center. It follows a Beekeeping Workshop scheduled at 10 a.m. at the farm on Ford Road.

The goal of the farm is to expand workshops "to provide topics that would appeal to and educate our surrounding community on how best to maintain a yard that is both appealing and beneficial to supporting our natural environment," said Jason Merrill, board president, Massaro Community Farm.

The Duck Truck Composting is the brainchild of Alexis Wilcox, a teacher, master gardener and composter who offers a host of landscaping services.

The Duck Truck, a traveling composting works pace, is based in Hamden. It makes numerous appearances throughout the year educating both kids and adults on the ease and benefits of diverting our green scraps to the compost pile.

Registration for this free workshop is not required, but is appreciated. Call 203-736-1053.

Strawberries arrive early at Jones Family Farms

By Keith Padin

Director, Marketing and Hospitality

Jones Family Farms

SHELTON - The winter and spring seasons of 2012 were ones for the record books. 

 Record high temperatures, droughts, late spring frosts and freezes and weeks of misty rain have all added to a very unusual climate in southern New England. For several weeks area farmers have been trying to figure out what all this means for their crops. 

For Terry Jones, one of the longest-continuous strawberry growers in the Connecticut, it brings a picking season earlier than ever.
  “This is the earliest we’ve ever had people harvesting strawberries at our farm,” said Jones who has been inviting guests to pick their own berries at his Shelton farm since the 1960s. 

Jones Family Farms opened for pre-season picking Tuesday and will continue to pick through June – or as long as the berries last. “It’s a quick season,” Jones said, “once the berries turn ripe, there’s no stopping them. The season usually lasts up to four weeks.”
  One of the biggest challenges of strawberry season is public understanding of the time frames. 

  “Years ago, our strawberry season wouldn’t be in full swing until Father’s Day weekend” said Jones. “So, people still have that idea in their head – mid to late June for strawberries. Well, Mother Nature has pushed that time frame up considerably in recent years, and this year it’s especially early. Everything seems to be earlier and earlier every year.”

Connecticut residents planning to secure their annual strawberry harvest should look for information from their local farmers soon. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture lists many of the pick-your-own farms in the state on their website (http://www.ct.gov/doag/lib/doag/marketing_files/brochures/pyoweb2012.pdf) before you know it, the season will be over.

Jones Family Farms is located in off Route 110 in Shelton. For more hours, picking locations, picking tips and other information visitors may call the Farmer Jones crop-info line, 203-929-8425 or visit JonesFamilyFarms.com or Facebook.com/JonesFamilyFarms.